The Capital Region’s top traffic cop says negotiating a roundabout is as easy, well, going around in a circle.
Staff Sgt. James Anderson, commander of the Integrated Road Road Safet Unit, said learning to drive in a traffic circle is more about doing than not doing.
“It seems if driving in a traffic circle is not on your everyday route, it’s more difficult for some people,” Anderson said.
“It’s an education, a work in progress for drivers to get used to traffic circles.”
For police, the biggest concern is for people to signal.
“Signal which way you are going to go, especially if you are staying inside the traffic circle where you’re not going to exit right away,” Anderson said.
“People who want to enter the traffic circle like to know where you are going once you are in the traffic circle. The signalling is probably the biggest part.”
Anderson said there are few laws that police can use as enforcement tools, but by and large, few tickets are written by police.
The biggest infractions: Failing to yield before entering the traffic circle and failing to signal to leave the traffic circle.
“We don’t receive complaints about roundabouts, and serious traffic and fatal collisions statistics are very minimal, if at all in roundabouts in the CRD,” he said.
